There will be an attempt to set the new world record for the ‘largest electric guitar ensemble’ on September 20 in Oklahoma City. This will take place at 5:00pm, right before the Deep Purple show at the Firelake Arena. The event will be hosted by Steve Morse and although there’s no word on the programme, one can take a slightly educated guess. The event is sponsored by Ernie Ball and local promoters KATT. Registered participants will have a chance to win a MusicMan Steve Morse Signature guitar and tickets to the show (including a pair in front row and 25 pairs of lesser ones).

The Guinness certified record currently stands at 368 participants, albeit the ostensibly competing category of ‘largest guitar ensemble’ (note the lack of the ‘electric’ part) tops it at 6,346, that record having been set in 2009, once again with Steve’s participation.

Register here.

Thanks to Yvonne for the info.

It’s official: Glenn Hughes is now a member of The Dead Daisies. The Dead Daisies is a pet project of an Australian multimillionaire David Lowy — a supergroup with rotating lineup now consisting of Glenn on bass and vocals, Doug Aldrich on guitar, drummer Deen Castronovo (Journey, Ozzy Osbourne), and David Lowy himself on guitar. Glenn replaces two departing members: singer John Corabi and bassist Marco Mendoza. The new lineup has already been to the studio and a track is posted on their website. They are supposed to finish the album later this year and tour some time in 2020.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Flying Colors premiered today another track for their upcoming album Third Degree.
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Glenn Hughes sat down to chat with Midland Metalheads (digging up his thickest accent), ahead of his performance at the Stonedeaf Festival on August 24. He tells the story of him joining Purple, and also mentions that Black Country Communion have January 2021 earmarked to record another album and that another one of his projects — California Breed — is pretty much dead now.

Thanks to BraveWords and Gary Poronovich for the info.

Music Radar has an interview with Opeth guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt, in which he discusses top 10 guitar players that blew his mind. His #1? Ritchie Blackmore, of course.

This has to start with him. Ritchie Blackmore is my hero, but not just for his guitar playing. His persona fascinates me. I love his audacity to just change whenever he wants, without taking any care or note of the people around him, not his label or fans. He just does what he wants to… that’s how I want to be. That’s how I am, I think. He is a magnificent guitarist, though his best work was early on, up until Deep Purple mk.3, which was around 1974. After that, even in Rainbow, he got a bit sloppy… and yet also wrote a lot of his best music.

We supported him in Spain earlier this summer. I was so nervous and excited that I missed my flight the next morning, though I think it had a little bit to do with drinking beer too! We were main support that night so I sat around outside our little cubicle, waiting for him to arrive. Then came what looked like an armoured car with blacked out windows, he was only a few metres away from me but drove back into his own sealed-off area. Which was probably for the best, as I would have ‘accidentally’ run in saying, ‘Oh hello!’ I really wanted to take my first selfie together but was told he doesn’t care to meet anyone. I would love to meet him though; he’s my idol in so many ways. I’m infatuated with him.

Thanks to Gary Poronovich and BraveWords for the info.

Glenn Hughes’ South American tour appears to have been cancelled, blaming squarely the local promoters:

Due to the South American Promoter failing to fulfill the required contractual obligations, Glenn Hughes will not be touring South America this September/October.

Glenn’s management has been unsuccessful in reaching any solution with the Promoter and has reluctantly decided that the tour will have to be rescheduled into 2021 with a new South American partner.

Management are confident of securing a new tour period and will have news of this soon.

The tour was scheduled to start on September 27, 2019 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and wrap up on October 25 in Goiânia, Brazil.

The third studio album of Flying Colors — aptly named Third degree — will be released on October 4, 2019, via Music Theory Recordings / Mascot Label Group.

The first sessions for Third Degree took place at Steve Morse’s studio in Florida in December 2016, wherein seven songs were written. From there, the bandmembers had to scatter back to their other personal and professional obligations, eventually reconvening two full years later in December 2018, when three more tracks were added to the overall Third Degree mix. (The tenth track, “Waiting for the Sun,” will be made available in forthcoming special editions.)

At this point, Portnoy deployed to Neal Morse’s Nashville studio to cut his drum tracks, while Neal and Casey often got together on Skype, as they’ve done in the past, to hone the lyrics.

The album will be available in following formats:

• CD Digipack;
• limited edition 2LP 180 gram blue vinyl in a gatefold sleeve (with download card);
• 2LP 180 gram black vinyl in a gatefold sleeve (w/ download card);
• limited edition box set featuring CD, 40 page photobook, two coasters, and a bonus disc with six tracks.

Track listing:

1. The Loss Inside
2. More
3. Cadence
4. Guardian
5. Last Train Home
6. Geronimo
7. You Are Not Alone
8. Love Letter
9. Crawl

Box set bonus disc:

1. Waiting For The Sun (unreleased bonus studio track)
2. Geronimo (alternate instrumental arrangement & mix)
3. You Are Not Alone (alternate instrumental arrangement & mix)
4. Love Letter (alternate instrumental arrangement & mix)
5. Last Train Home (alternate instrumental arrangement & mix)
6. Crawl (alternate instrumental arrangement & mix)

Music video for the track More:

Flying Colors are:

Steve Morse — guitar
Mike Portnoy — drums and vocals
Neal Morse — keyboards and vocals
Dave LaRue — bass
Casey McPherson — lead vocals

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Ian Gillan & Co were guests at a talk show in Brazil back in 2006. And what do Brits and Brazilians talk about — football, of course! And shoes. And silly hats.
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Last Saturday, August 3, Mexican rhythmic gymnastics team won gold medals at the Pan American Games 2019 in Lima, Peru.
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…Or so he says himself:

This new track, which truly yours finds hauntingly mesmerizing, is from the family veteran Mickey Lee Soule. It was recorded with Michael P. Starmer on drums and The Royal Sympathetik Orchestra, and released a couple of days ago on his website under ‘name your price’ model. You know what to do.

Thanks to our editor emeritus Dave Hodgkinson for the info.